Laser Cut & Engraved NES & SNES Controllers
I purchased my OmTech 60W laser cutter and engraver in January 2022. It's a big red monstrosity with a working space of 28" x 20". I had many ideas on nerdy things that I could make with it.
One of those ideas was to recreate the NES (original and the "Dogbone" variant that came with the "top loader" model NES) and SNES controllers to scale with the real thing. They are the same size within a tolerance. The only difference would be the depth (z) all because the thickness of my materials would make it impossible to get that perfect. But the linear x and y dimensions? They should be almost perfect.
I basically pulled the real deal out of a box and measured it with a tape measure and digital caliper. I then took photos of the device and used Adobe Illustrator to create the shapes. I then made sure my shapes and their placement matched the dimensions that I measured.
I had to find some NES fonts or redraw all of the graphical elements. Luckily, I found the correct fonts on the web and saved myself some work!
I designed the back plate as one solid piece in the shape of the controller which was simple. Then I added another layer with all of the engraving and details which was obviously the top layer. I set up the Illustrator file to make it easy to manufacture.
Each controller is made of two layers of 0.20 inch Birch plywood with a thinner, 0.08 inch material for the buttons. I engraved deeper indentions for each of the buttons, so they would only stick up a little (like the real thing).
I believe the engraving for the detail work was set to around 40% power and 300 mm/sec on the laser. If your speed is too fast, your details can become garbled or messed up. If your speed is too slow, the laser lingers too much and you can burn the material more than necessary. The cutting was done at around 40% power and 10 mm/sec. It's a little tricky to balance the speed and the power in such a way that you don't scorch the material more than necessary but you also don't overdrive your laser and use so much power that you burn it out faster. Sometimes you can char the material to ash with too many passes, even at a lower power.
And trickier still, sometimes you hit a harder area or a knot that impedes your cutting. You may cut 95% of your shape at 100% but one small section may not cut the way you expect.
I cleaned up the controller components with a light sanding and prepped them for a clear coat varnish. After the varnish had cured, I glued the components together with wood and super glue as needed.
I sell these and other items on my Etsy shop! I plan on making more classic controllers and similar versions for more modern console controllers, although they are not as flat as these 8 and 16 bit originals.
